"What was the deal?" You might ask. They offered to transfer both FSD AND free SuperCharging from other of my Teslas to a new car. I transferred free SuperCharging from my 2013 Model S and FSD from my 2022 Model Y. The people driving the 22 Y had little enthusiasm for FSD and the 13 S is nearing the end of its life. Free SuperCharging is now rarely to never offered though it was frequently offered in earlier Tesla history. FSD pricing seems to have settled at $8k to buy for the life of the car or $100/month if car owner wants to use FSD only occasionally.
In case you are a Tesla newbie: FSD is Full Self Driving. I have been avidly following and using FSD for about 5 years. In the early years, interest was mostly academic. The early versions required constant attention; most drivers found it not worth the effort of supervision. After a long period of development with software updates coming every month or two, a step function improvement occurred in early 2024 with version 12.1.x; previous versions were <= version 11.x.x. Right now, I'm running 12.3.6 and eagerly anticipating 12.4.x.
Rather than recounting current capabilities, I'll refer the reader to YouTube. WholeMarsCatalog has well demonstrated the current capabilities. Short story: one can drive great distances and not have to "intervene" (correct the car's behavior). Software updates (each with at least some improvement) come every few weeks. Complete autonomy is likely to come within a year.
Down to business! I'll describe a really fascinating incident shortly after I replaced V12.3.4 with V12.3.6. I was returning from Kyle to Dale in heavy afternoon traffic and allowing FSD with navigation to do mostly what it wanted. This was Wednesday June 12 about 4pm. As l recall. The incident was trying to cross SH21 from the north on a county road in northern Caldwell County (I may do a little research to identify that county road). Traffic was fairly heavy, both east and west bound, on the four lane SH21. Perhaps it is two traffic lanes plus paved shoulders on the sides. I needed clear spots in both directions since I was continuing straight across SH21. I perceived threats mainly from SH21 traffic though there was a car facing me, north bound on the south side of the intersection. After allowing the car to wait several minutes for clear sections in both directions, I finally decided to press throttle to tell the car to GO at an opportunity that it was not otherwise willing to take. I continued to not steer. The car is not able to over ride my throttle GO command but I allowed it to continue steering. The next thing I knew, the car took an abrupt violent turn onto left/east bound 21. Only in retrospect did I realize that the oncoming car in front of me had decided to take a left/west turn (to west bound 21) in front of me. Ignoring that I had the right of way. Unable to brake because I was on the throttle, the car (FSD) avoided a collision by turning left/east on 21. This turn was not part of planned navigation. A short way down 21, I made a U/west turn, then a left/south on the road I had been attempting to go straight on.
Had I not been using FSD, the heavy traffic might have induced me to make a right/west on 21, then a U/east, then a right/south on the county road. I'm exceedingly pleased with FSD performance. Though it would have been best had I let the car do what it wanted. Which might have resulted in a long delay waiting for 21 east bound and west bound breaks to be synchronized at the intersection.
With my wits fully functioning, I would have been prepared to preserve the car's video of the incident. With the proper command, just after an interesting incident, the car will preserve about a minute of all videos of action just past. There are five or more cameras that are continuously recorded but uninteresting recordings are overwritten after a few minutes or an hour.
I realize that this is a fairly complex incident and that my writing and language skills may be lacking. Comments with corrections and clarifications are solicited.
